Launched in January, Fuliza has already attracted more than four million customers, and Bob Collymore, CEO of Safaricom, hopes the product will reach all 21 million M-Pesa customers in Kenya.

Asia’s importance in global trade, helped by China’s ideas, innovation and growth and allied to the Middle East’s drive to improve living standards and diversify should profit every regional bank.

Asia’s importance in global trade, helped by China’s ideas, innovation and growth and allied to the Middle East’s drive to improve living standards and diversify should profit every regional bank.

Investors must tread carefully as analysts harbour concerns about the political and economic challenges lying ahead.

The economy has been performing admirably ahead of elections in April and a favourable risk rating is unlikely to be threatened by temporary fiscal laxness.

Working in Beirut in 1974 was a formative experience for Padraic Fallon, the long-serving editor and later chairman of Euromoney, and since then the magazine has set the standard for coverage of this often misunderstood region.

Of all the global corridors of trade and investment, the one between Latin America and the Middle East is among the least travelled.

Less than five years after Euromoney began, the Arab oil embargo gave international finance a shot in the arm and provided an extraordinary windfall to the Gulf, but as the oil boom has repeatedly turned to bust, commodity cycles have laid bare the vacuity of the region’s diversification programmes. Today, with local populations expanding, harder and less stable times could lie ahead if the region does not take more drastic action – even when oil prices bounce back.

Over 50 years, leaders of Middle East financial institutions have steered their businesses through very good and very bad times, including oil price crashes, rampant property and stock speculation, and war. Some key figures highlight the events they remember most and spell out lessons for the next generation.

For nearly two decades Dubai has acted as the beating heart of Middle Eastern finance, but now its long-dormant rivals are mounting successful efforts to reclaim a piece of the action.

The region’s banks used to be small, local and low-tech – many still are – but in the future they will be altogether different beasts.

War and revolution have shaped the Middle East’s recent history and have left their mark on the banking sector. Senior bankers reflect on the role crisis has played in their careers and on the region’s financial system.

Islamic finance has come a long way over the past few decades, maturing into a $2.4 trillion industry, but some long-term problems remain and the recent wrangle over a Dana Gas sukuk shows credibility is still an issue.

A recent criminal trial in London has revealed how banking negligence enabled a multi-million dollar fraud at the now defunct oil company Afren. Read on for a guide to Olivier Holmey’s feature in the February issue of Euromoney examining the errors made and what the financial sector can learn from them.

A string of due-diligence shortcomings enabled the international fraud that sapped investor confidence in once-booming London-listed oil firm Afren – and has also now led to jail time for its two top executives. What lessons can the banking industry learn from the failings laid bare in the court proceedings?

Prospects are improving, but the negative impact of Qatar’s isolation, given oil price volatility and the lack of diversification, has removed the cushion of safety the region took for granted.

Herbert Wigwe, CEO of Access Bank, says his institution’s announced merger with Diamond Bank will not only make it Africa’s largest bank by customers but also give it the potential to double its client base within just two or three years.

Before it sets off into Africa, the international financial institution needs to look to its roots.

Telcos allowed to provide limited services, helping financial inclusion in the country.

Regional difficulties have tested QNB’s resilience, but the bank has managed to consolidate its position at home and maintain its international strength.

The UAE’s largest bank is widely considered to have made a success of its merger and is now looking to realize its international potential.

Warning sirens are sounding about the level of debt Djibouti owes to China for Belt and Road projects. The local view is that they need the money and China is the country that is offering it. But the fate of the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway represents the financial challenges of BRI in a 756-kilometre microcosm.

The two Nigerian banks’ merger would form the country’s largest financial institution, but it is somewhat overshadowed by Diamond’s troubled legacy loans to the oil and energy sectors.

In Africa, digital payments are still the future, not the present.

The Trump administration has begun the process of ostracizing Iranian finance. Bankers there are hanging on to some rare good news, but how long will it be till they are back to square one?

The continent is implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement to boost intra-regional trade, economic growth and industrialization, but can 54 countries overcome so many obstacles and ratify the agreement?

Bankers believe that Vivo Energy’s dual listing in May has opened the taps on the IPO pipeline in Africa, but with primary equity markets suffering globally, is the continent really an exception?

Developments in the Gulf’s markets are increasingly being driven by the presence of Asian – and especially Chinese – banks, so no wonder rival financial centres in the region are competing for a bigger slice of the pie.

Planned changes to the country’s fintech licensing regime could halt the growth of a burgeoning market.

A new generation of digital products has slashed the cost of remittances and helped the unbanked meet short-term household or business liquidity needs, but there has been a downside.